getting the sharpest night landscape image

[echoyjeff222]

Hey, I am planning to go and take some night shots soon of the city. I've noticed that one of the most striking differences between a pro vs. amateur's shots is the degree of clarity and sharpness in the image (seems to be more exaggerated on night shots for me). Anyone have some technical tips for how to achieve the sharpest image? Thanks.

I think one of the problems that I often have is focusing. I've been trying to play around with manual focusing but I'm not too good at telling where the image is focused, unless I'm doing macro or something. For shots that don't have a clear foreground, where should I be focusing? Infinity? What about ones that have a medium-distance foreground? Should I focus there? Thanks.

 

[jsecordphoto]

It'll really depend on how much light there is, what focal length you're shooting at, etc.

If you're using a wide lens, you can most likely just focus at infinity. Using a telephoto lens to compress the scene? Then focus and depth of field get a little more tricky. Using an aperture where most lenses are sharpest (f8-f11ish) helps with sharpness as well

 

[astroNikon]

add sturdy Tripod and remote release as required items too.
stand in front of any wind to block the wind from affecting the image too (making blurry from shaking the camera)

 

[echoyjeff222]

you can most likely just focus at infinity

Are you talking about for shots with no clear foreground object?

 

[jsecordphoto]

That will again depend on the scene and the focal length of your lens. When I shoot at 16mm, if my foreground is 3ft away (approximately) or more, I can just focus at infinity.

 

[echoyjeff222]

So is the best/easiest thing to do just use the viewfinder and see if it's clear or not?

 

[KmH]

Instead of infinity, use the hyperfocus distance for your lens?

Many lenses are not all that easy to accurately set to infinity focus.

You should also consider what the air is doing.
The air is usually the most stable, and has the least amount of suspended particulate matter, in the morning before sunrise.

 

[TCampbell]

If there is nothing bright enough to allow the camera to achieve auto-focus, you can use "live view", find something and enlarge to 10x size, then manually focus.

If you use a very high focal ratio the tiny aperture will naturally throw diffraction spikes off points of light (so they look like stars) and that can have an impressive effect. You can also use a "cross screen" filter (sometimes called a star-light filter because it turns every point of light into a star.) Sharp diffraction spikes on points of light sort accentuate the feeling of "sharpness".

 

[weepete]

Yup, use the hyperfocal distance, sweet spot of the lens and or small aperture, sturdy tripod (make sure there's no vibrations on the ground either), mirror lock up, check focus in live view, remote shutter release, proper exposure, low ISO and of course a sharp lens helps.

Other than that editing the photos will help too. Most pro photos you see will have been edited so don't expect similar results SOOC

 

[astroNikon]

FYI, I believe the OP has a fixed lens camera according to signature.
Nikon CoolPix P90 ?
focal range according to Nikon website: 26-624mm
24x Optical Zoom-NIKKOR ED Glass Lens, f/2.8-5.0


but his Flickr photos show
Canon EOS REBEL T5i
EF-S18-135mm f/3.5-5.6 IS STM

nice photos in his Flickr account too

 

[echoyjeff222]

Okay, thanks for all the tips. I'll go out and try hyperfocal distance. So basically on ANY scene that I shoot, I just input the information for my lens and then use that same hyperfocal distance for all landscape-type images without a clear foreground?

Re astro -- yeah I have been borrowing the canon from my school recently I still have my trusty nikon, but I definitely like the flexibility of using different lenses!